Abstract Detail

Preliminary phylogeny of Solanum series Conicibaccata based on morphological and molecular data.

Solanum series Conicibaccata contains about 40 wild potato (sect. Petota) species distributed from southern Mexico to central Bolivia. It contains diploids (2n = 2x = 24), tetraploids (2n = 4x= 48) and hexaploids (2n = 6x = 72) and some polyploids are likely allopolyploids. Previous morphological studies including 173 accessions from 28 different species provided little phenetic support to distinguish most of these species, with clear exceptions grouping the most distinctive Conicibaccata species into six different groups, 1) S. agrimonifolium and S. oxycarpum as a possible single species, 2) S. longiconicum (tetraploids from Mexico and Central America), 3) South American Conicibaccata diploids as a possible single species, except for 4) S. trinitense that is distinctive, 5) the South American tetraploids as a group except for 6) S. flahaultii that is distinctive. However, character states among these species or species groups are often present only by using a range of widely overlapping character states. We present here preliminary data obtained from Conserved Orthologous Set (COS) markers of both related species and those from series Conicibaccata.showing the allopolyploid origin of this series and the monophyly from its diploid species. In addition, our data support the synonymy of many of these species.